The Congress of the People (COPE) political party has slammed the new pay rise for public office bearers‚ saying it will cause the national debt to skyrocket. “Money is strangely always rapidly forthcoming to fund salary increases but strangely lacking for education‚ health and housing‚” COPE spokesman Dennis Bloem said. “The Public Protector’s Office has had to scale back because of a funding squeeze. She rightly pointed out that the national budget must be prioritised.“However‚ will President Zuma and the ruling party listen? They will certainly not. Self-enrichment is the order of the day‚” Bloem added. He said the government had become “too big and very unaffordable”.“The national debt‚ which will in a few weeks top R2-trillion‚ will have to be paid for by taxpayers and the pain of that has yet to be felt. If citizens remain tongue tied or indifferent now‚ the future will be stolen from them‚” Bloem asserted. “COPE wants government to downsize and for the salary bill to come down substantially. There are too many urgent priorities that need funding and meeting unnecessary salaries is certainly not one of them.”..